By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Presidency yesterday reacted to the Mamman Daura’s comment about zoning in Nigeria, admitting that he is entitled to his opinion as an elder statesman but that those views expressed were not the views of the President.
The clarification was in reaction to widespread controversy that followed Daura’s submission last week that the post of Nigerian president should not be attained on rotational basis but predicated on competence.
Sundiata Post recalls that Mamman Daura had last week in an interview granted the BBC Hausa service said that competence not geography would determine who takes over in 2023. But he was heavily criticised by many individuals and groups, who accused him of flying a northern kite ahead of the 2023 presidential poll.
However, presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement titled, “Malam Mamman’s Views Are His Own, and He Has Said So,” noted that the presidency had since the expression of those views been inundated with requests for presidential reaction. Shehu said the opinion of Daura was solely his, and did not in any way reflect the position of the president or his administration.
The statement also said at the age of 80, and having served as the editor, and subsequently the managing director of the New Nigerian newspaper, Daura was eminently qualified to express his views as guaranteed in the constitution.
